John Beverly "The Real Thing"

In this blog post I wanted to discuss John Beverly’s , The Real Thing. Beverly’s article discusses Rigoberta Menchu’s “I, Rigoberta” and the notion of the subaltern and this idea of authenticity. Beverly analyzes the fact that the book refers to the narrator as Rigoberta not RIgoberta Menchu or Menchu. Beverly makes the point that it is informal since we have not formal met Menchu herself. Beverly continues to discuss the question, “Can the subaltern speak?” and compares the work to Elzbieta Sklodowska. Beverly discussed Sklodowska ideas when he states, Elzbieta Sklodowska has something similar in mind when she criticizes what she feels is the appeal in accounts of testimonio, including my own, to the authenticity of a subaltern voice. Such an appeal stops the semiotic play of the text, she implies, fixing both it and the testimonial subject in an unidirectional gaze that deprives them of their reality”. Beverly discusses the subaltern in a negative connotation. I don’t know if this question can truly be answered. Menchu’s text forces the reader to confront not only the subaltern as a represented text but also as the agent of a transformative project that reaches to be hegemonic in its own sense.